Canada to introduce iPod tax

Calls to compensate artists for private copying

The Canadian Private Copyright Collective ( CPCC) is calling for digital music players to be taxed to compensate artist for loss of earnings due to private copying.

The group, which looks after copyright protection and royalties in Canada, had previously attempted to have a levy introduced to all memory devices.

The Canadian Supreme Court overruled that decision, however, saying memory can't be defined as an audio recording medium.

The CPCC is proposing a levy of $5 (Canadian) for players with 1GB of memory, $25 for 1 to 10GB players, $50 for 10GB to 30 GB players, and $75 for those over 30GB in size. Tackling the music player head-on could see the prices of the players increasing as much as 26 per cent, says Slashdot .

The Canadian Private Copyright Collective is seeking the extra levy charge as it believes private copying is an important factor. This is when someone copies a friend's CD onto their music player, so they don't have to buy their own copy.

"It is simply a matter of fairness that the creators of content should receive some compensation for the large volume of unauthorized and uncontrollable copying onto these media," said Claudette Fortier, chair of the Collective.

Blank media, CD-Rs, DVD-Rs, etc, in Canada have a levy attached to them. The CPCC collects that money and is responsible for redistributing it to artists. This levy is seen as a fair way to tackle private copying within those mediums.

The CPPC claims Canadians will be happy with the increased costs of music players, and believe such a move would be "fair and reasonable".